Because of You
by PheobeColelovers
Summary: Umm...This is basically a story in the eyes of one of the Charmed One's daughters


_**This is a songfic I wrote. It just came to me one night. I hope you like it. Prudence is the daughter of one of the Charmed Ones. Guess which one**_

Prudence walked down the streets of San Francisco, not yet ready to return home. She had ended another relationship, stopped it before it had gotten too serious, got scared and ran. This was the only constant thing in her life now. She would start dating and when it was about to get serious, she would leave, too afraid to make her heart that vulnerable. She had seen what had happened to her mother and had promised herself that it would not happen to her.

_I will not make the same mistakes that you did_

_I will not let myself _

_Cause my heart so much misery_

_I will not break_

_The way you did, you fell so hard_

_I've learned the hard way_

_To never let it get that far_

She stood at a corner and peered on both sides, making sure that a car was not coming. She did this at least ten times before she started into the road, taking a deep breath before starting to cross.

After crossing the street safely, she started down the sidewalk, finally realizing that she had to go home, knowing that her mother would be worried. She was tapped on the shoulder and immediately took a fighting stance, waiting for the worst to happen.

"Excuse me," an elderly woman said holding something in her hand. "You dropped this."

Prue eyed the elderly woman and the piece of jewelry for a minute before accepting that it was her own bracelet. She took the bracelet and turned the other way walking in the direction of her house, not saying a word to the woman.

_Because of you_

_I never stray too far from the sidewalk_

_Because of you_

_I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt_

_Because of you_

_I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me_

_Because of you I am afraid_

She dreaded going home, knowing that her mother would let her know what a mistake it had been to even start a relationship with Andrew. She would tell her how she was better off without any man, that men only made things worse.

She walked up the stairs and walked in the manor, unshed tears threatening to fall. She held them in, though. Her mother walked into the room, and by the look on her face, Prue knew she was going to get the lecture. Instead of showing her pain, she forced a smile, hoping that her mother would see it as a sign that she was alright.

She ran up to her room, not wanting to listen to her mother say 'I told you so' and pulled out a picture from her nightstand. It was her at the age of 6 or 7. She was sitting in her father's lap, a smile plastered on her small face. Her mother sat beside her father, both smiling, looking into each other eyes with such love, such passion. That was the last time she had felt whole, happy. After that day, everything she knew was destroyed and her heart never healed.

_I lose my way_

_And it's not too long before you point it out_

_I cannot cry_

_Because I know that's weakness in your eyes_

_I'm forced to fake_

_A smile, a laugh, every day of my life_

_My heart can't possibly break_

_When it wasn't even whole to start with_

She held the picture, running it through her hands, remembering that day. Demons had attacked. Her father had protected both her and her mother and it cost him his life. He was taken down, killed. There were just too many fireballs and poison arrows coming at him for him to handle.

She remembered the days, weeks, months, following that. Her mother broke down, stopped caring about anything but her daughter's safety, neglecting the emotional scars left on the child. Prudence took care of her mother during those months following her father's death, made her eat, take a shower, go to work. Their roles became reversed. She remembered trying to sleep late at night, but not being able to, her mother's crying too loud for anyone to rest.

Only seven years old, and she had lost everything, her father, and slowly her mother, dying from the inside, unable to handle her grief. She stood by her mother, helped her get though everyday tasks, hoping that someday things would go back to how they had been, and her mother would once again be the happy, loving, energetic woman she had been before everything had gone to hell. She was only a child and yet she had been expected to hold all that was left of her family together, convince her mother that life was worth living. She tried to be strong for her mother, but sometimes all she wanted was a hug and to be told that everything was okay, that they would survive without him.

Her mother never thought about how her husband's death might have affected Prue, too consumed by her own pain. It wasn't that she didn't care about her daughter, it was just that her pain was so much to bear that she couldn't add someone else's grief on top of her own. There was no way that she could have continued living if that had happened.

_I watched you die_

_I heard you cry every night in your sleep_

_I was so young_

_You should have known better that to lean on me_

_You never thought of anyone else_

_You just saw your pain_

_And now I cy in the middle of the night_

_For the same damn thing_

Prudence shoved the picture back in her night stand. Seeing it just brought back too many memories, memories she would rather just forget about. What was the point of thinking about the past? It wasn't as if she could change what had happened.

She laid on her bed and finally let the tears fall, tears she had been holding in for years. All she had wanted was a normal life, a mother, a father, even an annoying little brother, but she hadn't gotten any of those things. No father, no siblings. Sure she had a mother, if you could call her one, one who's only priority consisted of wallowing in her own failures and burying both her and her daughter away from society, trying to keep her daughter away from the evils of the world. But in doing that, she ended up making Prue's life worse, not better. If she had just let her grow up how she was supposed to, been the mother that she was supposed to be, Prue wouldn't have the trust issues that she had, the fear of commitment, rejection. Now, not only does she have to deal with real demons that enter their lives several times a week, she also has to deal with the inner demons eating away at her at all hours of the day, making her question her judgement, her decisions.

_Because of you I never stray too far from the sidewalk_

_Because of you I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt_

_Because of you_

_I try my hardest just to forget everything_

_Because of you_

_I don't know how to let anyone else in_

_Because of you_

_I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty_

_because of you I am afraid_

_**How was it? Who's Prudence's mother? **_

_**All lyrics belong to Kelly Clarkson. I do not own the song, the lyrics, Charmed, or anything except for Prudence's character**_


End file.
